Thursday, May 06, 2004
Sorry for the impersonal nature of this update, but I wanted to fill you in on how things are going here in India without letting too much more time go by.
We left the U.S. on April 16 and arrived in Bangalore, India on April 17. We found out later that it was the hottest day here in five years. Probably somewhere in the 90s with high humidity. Maya, Molly and Charlie did well on the flight, sleeping a fair amount. But it was a good week and a half before their bodies adjusted to the time zone change (12.5 hours earlier than San Diego). There were times when we were up at 1 or 2 am having breakfast with the kids and playing for an hour or two--their bodies just thought it was time to get up!
Badri's mom (Amma) and dad (Thatha) were here at the house when we arrived, which was very lucky for us. Amma had already hired a cook, Celina, and a maid, Mani, who are terrific. Our house is large even by American standards: on the first floor there is a large office for Badri, as well as a living room/dining room, a spare bedroom w/ two (?!) adjoining bathrooms, and a kitchen with a breakfast bar. The 2nd floor consists of 3 bedrooms and three bathrooms, a huge playroom/living room, and a mini-kitchen. The kitchen has a fridge, stove/oven and microwave, and washing machine. The only things it doesn't have that we're used to are a dryer and dishwasher. There is tons of storage space, with wardrobes and drawers built in everywhere.
The house was pretty much furnished and decorated when we got here. Badri had hired this woman, Ashvini, who has great taste and used colors we love to paint and furnish the place. The living room walls, for instance, are yellow with orange patterns painted over parts of the wall. There are artsy table lamps and sconces that cast beautiful shadows on the wall in the evening. Our dining room table is a gorgeous square checkerboard butcher block with wooden chairs on three sides and a bench on the fourth side. The bench is upholstered with this beautiful Indian textile woven with orange, blue and yellow. Practically every window has a windowseat with either that material or brown leatherish covering, or in the kids rooms, blue and purple material. The girls' room has a beautiful windowseat overlooking the park across the street.
At the moment all three kids are sleeping in our bedroom: Charlie's sleeping in a crib lent to us by our landlady, Parveen; Molly's sleeping in the pack 'n play, and Maya's sleeping on a mattress on the floor. When we arrived there was only one air conditioner and it was in our room, plus we wanted the kids to feel comfortable in a new place. Our friend from home, Karen, is sleeping in what will become the girls' room when we're ready to move them over. It's been wonderful having Karen here to help out, and we'll sorely miss her when she leaves at the end of the week.
Our house is slightly Spanish style, built in the early 70s. We live across the street from a park where Indians in the neighborhood (and it's mostly a neighborhood of Indians) are walking by the dozens as early as 6:30 in the morning. Right past that park is a children's park with swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and various climbing equipment. Our usual schedule is to get up at 5:30 or 6 am (Molly's still the early riser), have breakfast and get to the park by 8 or 8:30. Badri's off to work by 8:30 in a car leased by the company and driven by Mohan, this great guy who knows the city really well and is terrific with the kids. Molly usually naps around 10-11 and Maya's often playing with a buddy in the neighborhood. Gazelle is the daughter of a friend of Badri's older brother, who we discovered by some wild coincidence is living in the same neighborhood as us. We eat lunch and dinner at hours that are insanely early to locals here: 12 and 6 or 7. Most people eat those meals a couple hours later.
We've also had a playdate at our landlady, Parveen's, house. Her two children are 5 and 8 years old, Aventi (girl) and Vir (boy). There's a group called the Overseas Women's Club (OWC) that's been very helpful in telling us about things to do, where to shop, good doctors, where to play, etc. There are two playgroups through the OWC, and we went to one last week. Bangalore's a booming high tech town, and there are tons of expatriates (foreigners) living here. The playgroup we went to last week consisted of people from Australia, U.S., and England.
The food is wonderful here. Amma and Appa are vegetarians, and the girls are eating more here than they do in the states. Having lots of dals (lentils), bread (like chapati and roti) and vegetable dishes made with veggies like okra, cauliflower, potatoes, green beans, spinach, carrots, eggplant, and a few vegetables I haven't been able to identify. For breakfast we usually have oatmeal or eggs and toast.
When we left Tierrasanta I was thinking about how long it would take us to settle in our neighborhood here to the point where people would drop in like they do back there. Well, it's a very Indian thing to just drop in on people without calling. So we feel like we're home already. Badri and I went to dinner at one of his work friend's house last week. They live right across the park from us. Those friends actually ride their mountain bikes to work in this insane traffic. The cars go slow, but it's total chaos: no one sticks to their side of the road and in the rare case when there are marked lanes, no one stays in them. Badri's thinking of getting a bike so he can ride to work, but it scares me to think of it. His friends that bike to work leave the office at 5 and ride out of the city and in no time there in beautiful rural villages. They say they go an hour out and back and it's like a completely different place.
The weather here is gorgeous now. The rains have come unusually early to cool things off a bit. I'd guess in the high 70s, with less humidity. Even though we're just several blocks walk to lots of action (shops, restaurants, etc.), we wake up to the sounds of birds I'd never heard before, with huge trees all around. Bangaloreans do say though that the weather has heated up in the last ten years because of all the trees being cut down for development. We're definitely in a little pocket that hasn't been as adversely affected by development as other parts.
I'm going to close for now. I'm on Badri's laptop (our other stuff hasn't made it here yet--even the air shipment that was supposed to be here in a week and a half to two weeks hasn't made it yet) and he has to get some work done before he goes to bed.
I'll send out periodic updates. I hope everyone's doing well.
Love, Kelly
We left the U.S. on April 16 and arrived in Bangalore, India on April 17. We found out later that it was the hottest day here in five years. Probably somewhere in the 90s with high humidity. Maya, Molly and Charlie did well on the flight, sleeping a fair amount. But it was a good week and a half before their bodies adjusted to the time zone change (12.5 hours earlier than San Diego). There were times when we were up at 1 or 2 am having breakfast with the kids and playing for an hour or two--their bodies just thought it was time to get up!
Badri's mom (Amma) and dad (Thatha) were here at the house when we arrived, which was very lucky for us. Amma had already hired a cook, Celina, and a maid, Mani, who are terrific. Our house is large even by American standards: on the first floor there is a large office for Badri, as well as a living room/dining room, a spare bedroom w/ two (?!) adjoining bathrooms, and a kitchen with a breakfast bar. The 2nd floor consists of 3 bedrooms and three bathrooms, a huge playroom/living room, and a mini-kitchen. The kitchen has a fridge, stove/oven and microwave, and washing machine. The only things it doesn't have that we're used to are a dryer and dishwasher. There is tons of storage space, with wardrobes and drawers built in everywhere.
The house was pretty much furnished and decorated when we got here. Badri had hired this woman, Ashvini, who has great taste and used colors we love to paint and furnish the place. The living room walls, for instance, are yellow with orange patterns painted over parts of the wall. There are artsy table lamps and sconces that cast beautiful shadows on the wall in the evening. Our dining room table is a gorgeous square checkerboard butcher block with wooden chairs on three sides and a bench on the fourth side. The bench is upholstered with this beautiful Indian textile woven with orange, blue and yellow. Practically every window has a windowseat with either that material or brown leatherish covering, or in the kids rooms, blue and purple material. The girls' room has a beautiful windowseat overlooking the park across the street.
At the moment all three kids are sleeping in our bedroom: Charlie's sleeping in a crib lent to us by our landlady, Parveen; Molly's sleeping in the pack 'n play, and Maya's sleeping on a mattress on the floor. When we arrived there was only one air conditioner and it was in our room, plus we wanted the kids to feel comfortable in a new place. Our friend from home, Karen, is sleeping in what will become the girls' room when we're ready to move them over. It's been wonderful having Karen here to help out, and we'll sorely miss her when she leaves at the end of the week.
Our house is slightly Spanish style, built in the early 70s. We live across the street from a park where Indians in the neighborhood (and it's mostly a neighborhood of Indians) are walking by the dozens as early as 6:30 in the morning. Right past that park is a children's park with swings, slides, merry-go-rounds and various climbing equipment. Our usual schedule is to get up at 5:30 or 6 am (Molly's still the early riser), have breakfast and get to the park by 8 or 8:30. Badri's off to work by 8:30 in a car leased by the company and driven by Mohan, this great guy who knows the city really well and is terrific with the kids. Molly usually naps around 10-11 and Maya's often playing with a buddy in the neighborhood. Gazelle is the daughter of a friend of Badri's older brother, who we discovered by some wild coincidence is living in the same neighborhood as us. We eat lunch and dinner at hours that are insanely early to locals here: 12 and 6 or 7. Most people eat those meals a couple hours later.
We've also had a playdate at our landlady, Parveen's, house. Her two children are 5 and 8 years old, Aventi (girl) and Vir (boy). There's a group called the Overseas Women's Club (OWC) that's been very helpful in telling us about things to do, where to shop, good doctors, where to play, etc. There are two playgroups through the OWC, and we went to one last week. Bangalore's a booming high tech town, and there are tons of expatriates (foreigners) living here. The playgroup we went to last week consisted of people from Australia, U.S., and England.
The food is wonderful here. Amma and Appa are vegetarians, and the girls are eating more here than they do in the states. Having lots of dals (lentils), bread (like chapati and roti) and vegetable dishes made with veggies like okra, cauliflower, potatoes, green beans, spinach, carrots, eggplant, and a few vegetables I haven't been able to identify. For breakfast we usually have oatmeal or eggs and toast.
When we left Tierrasanta I was thinking about how long it would take us to settle in our neighborhood here to the point where people would drop in like they do back there. Well, it's a very Indian thing to just drop in on people without calling. So we feel like we're home already. Badri and I went to dinner at one of his work friend's house last week. They live right across the park from us. Those friends actually ride their mountain bikes to work in this insane traffic. The cars go slow, but it's total chaos: no one sticks to their side of the road and in the rare case when there are marked lanes, no one stays in them. Badri's thinking of getting a bike so he can ride to work, but it scares me to think of it. His friends that bike to work leave the office at 5 and ride out of the city and in no time there in beautiful rural villages. They say they go an hour out and back and it's like a completely different place.
The weather here is gorgeous now. The rains have come unusually early to cool things off a bit. I'd guess in the high 70s, with less humidity. Even though we're just several blocks walk to lots of action (shops, restaurants, etc.), we wake up to the sounds of birds I'd never heard before, with huge trees all around. Bangaloreans do say though that the weather has heated up in the last ten years because of all the trees being cut down for development. We're definitely in a little pocket that hasn't been as adversely affected by development as other parts.
I'm going to close for now. I'm on Badri's laptop (our other stuff hasn't made it here yet--even the air shipment that was supposed to be here in a week and a half to two weeks hasn't made it yet) and he has to get some work done before he goes to bed.
I'll send out periodic updates. I hope everyone's doing well.
Love, Kelly
# posted by Kelly @ 10:29 AM 
